Halloween: Resurrection
Halloween: Resurrection is a 2002 horror film and the eighth installment in the Halloween franchise film series. Directed by Rick Rosenthal, who had also directed Halloween II, the film builds upon the continuity of Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later. Just like its former installment, Halloween: Resurrection effectively ignores the storylines established during the 4th, 5th, and 6th installments. Plot Three years after the events of Halloween H20, Laurie Strode has been confined to a psychiatric care facility. It is revealed that Laurie had beheaded a paramedic at the end of the previous movie instead of Michael Myers. The paramedic had located the body of Myers in the dining hall of Laurie's school, but Myers had attacked the paramedic, crushed his larynx, and forcefully switched clothing and his mask. Unable to deal with the crime and the fear of her brother, Laurie was confined to a sanitarium. Myers has not been seen since the night of October 31, 1998. On October 30, 2001, still in captivity, Laurie pretends to be heavily medicated, behaving as though she had extreme dissociative disorder. In truth, she hides her pills and carefully prepares herself for the inevitable confrontation with Michael. When Michael finally appears, Laurie lures him into a trap, but before she can kill him, he turns the tables on her. In a confrontation on the sanitarium's rooftop, she reaches over to pull off his mask to make certain it is actually her brother. He suddenly grabs her and pulls her over the edge with him, stabbing her deep in the back. She gives him a kiss on the lips of his mask, lastly telling him, "I'll see you in hell." Michael releases the knife from his sister and she falls many stories below to her apparent death, finally ending Michael's pursuit for Laurie. One year later, on October 30, six college students; Sara Moyer, Bill Woodlake, Jim Morgan, Donna Chang, Jenna Danzig, and Rudy Grimes win a competition to appear on an Internet reality show directed by Freddie Harris and his assistant Nora Winston in which they are to spend Halloween night in the childhood home of Michael Myers. Their mission is to find out what led him to kill. They start to search the entire house for something that can lead to Michael's past. The group decide to separate in three groups to cover more areas. The event goes horribly wrong as Michael returns home, and one by one he kills the students and the crew. Jen screams and disappears finishing that all was a joke, then in the bathroom Michael Myers attacks Bill through the mirror by stabbing him in the head. Then when Sara, Jen, and Rudy are in a room, Sara looks in a closet and is attacked by a figure with a mask, it turns out it was just a mannequin and they found a book with some kind of drawings. In the basement Jim and Donna found a kind of door and try to open it with a key they found nearby, they enter to some kind of room for chain people and they start to kiss when soon a wall collapses and skeletons are let out. But they soon realize the bodies are fake, as they have the words Made in Taiwan written all over them. Then someone disguised as Michael Myers enters and the original finds the man in the dinning room, the man's revealed to be Freddie and he furiously talks with Michael and tells him to go. In the basement, Jim leaves but Donna finds an entrance to a tunnel, when she enters she finds a room with a news photo of Laurie when suddenly the lights turn off and Michael Myers appears. As she starts to run, she stops at a dead end and Michael kills her by stabbing her with a metal rod. As Sara starts to look at the coloring book she sees Michael Myers in a corner of the room and she starts to run, Rudy goes to help her but soon Michael disappears. Then a figure attacks Sara by taking her back but is saved by Jim and the Michael attacking Sara was Freddie. She discovers that it was all fake and only for the attention they wanted. Then Jen finds the entrance to the attic, and when she opens it, she finds Bill's body. Soon Michael Myers appears and decapitates her leaving the head falling downstairs. The survivors attempt to escape through the door but cannot, then they try to get to the window and Jim tries to fight Michael but soon Michael kills Jim by crushing his head. Michael goes for Sara, but Rudy calls Michael's attention leading Sara to run. Michael searches for Sara who is in a room trying to help her. Myles Barton, Sara's internet pal, who was seeing this the whole time, sends a message to Sara telling that Michael is upstairs and tells her to try to escape through the window. She escapes to the roof and goes in the attic, she finds the way to the hallway where Freddie finds her. The two try to go downstairs when they find Michael Myers. Freddie begins to fight Michael out of desperation. Sara tries to help by grabbing Michael's neck with the camera cable, and Freddie throws Michael through the window leaving Michael hanging from his neck. Before they can leave, Myles sends a message saying that he's still alive. Another message comes saying that he is in the house. Michael appears and stabs Freddie while Sara runs and attempts to go through the kitchen's door but finds all of the bodies. Michael enters and Sara gets a chainsaw and attacks Michael until it turns off and starts a fire. Michael then wakes up and finds Sara trapped. Then Freddie (who survived his last attack) appears and starts another fight, but is soon thrown away by Michael and tries to kill him. However, Freddie shocks Michael and apparently kills him. Later, the officers get to the house and attend to Freddie and Sara, and Myles sends a message saying that they are on the news. Then they find Michael's body and send it to the morgue. A nervous female doctor opens the body bag, and Michael's eyes suddenly open. Alternate Endings Alternate Endings Along with the original ending, three alternate endings have also been filmed and can be seen on the dvd. *The first ending shows the garage on fire with Michael entangled in the cords, apparently still alive. While still trapped, Sara looks around to see the garage on fire, only to be saved by her internet pen pal Myles, whom she does not know personally. Myles then picks her up and runs out of the garage, leaving Michael to burn to death. After being saved by a "stranger", she asks him who he is only to find out that he is in fact Deckard, her internet pen-pal. After the police arrive, Myles reveals who he really is to Sara. Freddy is brought to a waiting ambulance on a stretcher and apologizes to Sara once more to which she responds by kissing his forehead before he is taken away. Myles then tells Sara she killed the Boogeyman to which she replies: "You can't kill the Boogeyman". *The second ending takes place right after Freddy shoves away the camera man after being asked how he feels at that moment. While the fire department puts out the fire, which has consumed the garage, the CSI arrive at the scene to investigate. While investigating the hole in the back yard of the house, a female agent looks down the hole only to be grabbed by Michael, who somehow escaped the burning garage. The shot ends with the agent screaming when the screen turns black. *The third ending shows Sara asking to see Michael's face, with Freddy coming to take a peek. When the body bag is opened, a cameraman sneaks a peek at Michael's dead body and the fireman pushes the cameraman away. After saying a few words to a dead Michael, it appears that Michael has survived the fire. Opening his eyes, he grabs Freddy by the neck and starts choking him. Sara then grabs an ax and hits Michael with it on the head, finally killing Michael. After being released from Michael's grip, Freddy looks at Sara, says a few words and also God Bless you. Then he gives her a smile and the scene ends. Production The film's working title was "Halloween: The Homecoming," but producers wanted a title that said Michael Myers is alive, so in February 2002, the film was officially renamed as "Halloween: Resurrection." Also, the release date for the film was originally set as September 21, 2001, but producers at Dimension Films wanted the film to be stronger so re-shoots took place from September to October 2001 and the release date was changed to April 19, 2002 and then again to July 12, 2002. Both, Whitney Ransick and Dwight H. Little were approached to direct the film but turned it down. Later Rick Rosenthal, the director of Halloween II, was chosen to direct. During the casting period of the film, producers considered Danielle Harris (who played Jamie Lloyd in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers and Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers) for a role in the film. In post production Bianca Kajlich's screams had to be dubbed because of her inability to scream. The film's trailer was delivered on April 26, 2002 with the release of Jason X. Music For this eighth installment of the series, Danny Lux created a genuine score to the original instead of generating something new. He approaches the score with an electro-acoustic feel that dates back to the synthesizer scores of the '80s. Reception Halloween: Resurrection was released on July 12, 2002 in the US to an extremely poor reception which did not change in its later international release. The film's opening weekend on US screens raked in $12,292,121 and overall the film earned a moderate $37,664,855. It garnered a rotten review of 10% on Rotten Tomatoes. Lou Lumenick of the New York Post said, "It’s so devoid of joy and energy it makes even ‘Jason X’ look positively Shakespearian by comparison." Dave Kehr of the New York Times said, "Spectators will indeed sit open-mouthed before the screen, not screaming but yawning." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone magazine said, "Every sequel you skip will be two hours gained. Consider this review life-affirming." Joe Leydon of Variety said, "Seems even more uselessly redundant and shamelessly money-grubbing than most third-rate horror sequels." Glenn Lovell of the San Jose Mercury News was slightly more positive: "No, it’s not as single-minded as John Carpenter’s original, but it’s sure a lot smarter and more unnerving than the sequels." Continuity Halloween Resurrection concludes with the potential for another sequel to continue the story. No film has yet been produced to continue the time line of the first Halloween motion picture saga. The creators for the Halloween films presently have produced the remake installment Rob Zombie's 2007 Halloween. A sequel to Zombie's remake, Halloween II, began production on February 23, 2009 and was released on August 28, 2009. Further sequels to the original films were not expected, as Zombie himself had stated that the original Halloween film series was "dead".